Hey there folks, Writing a book is the ultimate business card on steroids. The truth is that everybody’s got a book in them, so why should we create a book and how can we use it to leverage our business?
A Book as a Powerful Leveraging Tool
I think a book has just become a wonderful leveraging tool that we can have, and today more than ever. For me, that’s what I’ve used my books for. They’ve been these amazing tools to help me build a really successful global business where I do work in so many different countries around the world, all of it based on the credibility of being the person who’s written a book about marketing or customer service.
Setting Yourself Apart from the Competition
My books are all about small business entrepreneurialism, and I think it sets you apart from everyone else. If you’re the one that writes a book and your competitors haven’t got a book, well, straight away, you’ve got this exceptional competitive advantage. How you do what you do is really important for other people because people want that information. We live in an era of incredible demand for knowledge, and we all do things slightly differently. For me, I think you’ve got to write a book as a leveraging tool, as a sharing of information, as a great way to set yourself apart from others. That’s just non-negotiable. Everyone, write a book now, right now. Just stop everything!
Your Book is Your Business Card on Steroids
Writing a book is like a business card on steroids. It’s the most powerful business card you’ll ever have.
What to Do Once You’ve Written Your Book
How do you actually do it? It’s a great question because I think the key is leveraging. We were laughing recently when I did an interview. I said, I’m actually not a very good writer, but I’m a very good leverager, and I’ve learned to leverage what I do really, really well.
Leveraging Your Book to Build Your Network
For starters, I send them out to people in the media, I send them to people of influence, I send them to potential partners. Every day, I’m sending some books out for free to people and extending my network. I look at every single book that I have as a seed — that’s the little corny metaphor that I use. The seed is, if I send it to someone, you never know how that will come back to you. Send it just as a gift and sign it: “Dear Bill, you might be interested in what I’ve written here. Please enjoy my book.”
The Hard Work Starts After You’ve Got Your Book
Over the years, the amount of work that my books have generated for me all around the planet has been extraordinary, simply from doing something like that, just by sending it to people randomly. But you’ve got to work at it. The hard work starts once you’ve got your book. I use a line where I say you’ve got to be marketing and leveraging your book every day of every week, of every single month, of every single year, of every single decade.
Promote, Market, and Leverage Your Book Every Day
People think you’ve got your book, and then we joke the Ferrari will arrive. It’s what you do with your book that makes the difference. You’ve got to promote it on your website, give it to your clients, and make sure it’s part of your bio. If you’re doing a pitch, submission, or tender, include a copy of your book. When you’re doing training programs, make sure you tell everyone you’ve written a book and give everyone a copy.
Each Book is a Seed of Opportunity
Think of each book as a seed. A $29.95 seed that can generate — and has done for me on many occasions — hundreds of thousands of dollars because of the credibility it gives you.
Being an Author Sets You Apart
If you’re sitting next to someone on a plane, this happens to me all the time, you know, that kind of non-descript sitting next to each other on a plane. You don’t necessarily want to be too chatty because you don’t want someone going crazy in your ear, but as soon as you mention that you’re an author, the conversation changes completely. Everyone is really quite interested and fascinated about what makes an author. It sets you apart from other people.
Leverage is the Key to Maximizing Your Book’s Potential
Just getting the book is a big milestone, but learning how to market it and being active when it comes to leveraging it is going to give you an enormous competitive advantage. Whatever you do, people want to know about it. That’s the key.
You Have a Unique Story to Tell
One of the barriers is that people often say to me, “Well, who am I to write a book? What have I got to say?” The real key is that it’s your experiences, it’s how you do what you do. Whatever it is that you do, whatever your area of expertise is — you write about how you do what you do, because we’re all fascinated with how others do what they do, and that’s what will give you that competitive advantage.
Cheers folks,
Andrew Griffiths
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